🤔 Bitcoin: Buy or Wait for ETF?

In today’s edition: 🚨 Ordinals labeled exploit, 📉 Oracle glitch, exploit scare, 💻 US flags Bitcoin issue, 🌟 Starknet's big token drop, and more!

December 11, 2023

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What’s Poppin’?

by Kari McMahon, Sage Young and Samyuktha Sriram

As bitcoin’s price rises, first-time bitcoin investors in the US face a quandary — buy now or wait a month to see if a spot bitcoin ETF gets approved first?

A vulnerability flagged by Bitcoin Core developer Luke Dashjr last week has now been added to the U.S. government’s National Vulnerability Database.

BNB-based Venus refuted claims that the protocol had suffered a $54 billion exploit, pointing to a malfunctioning Binance Oracle that resulted in $200,000 worth of borrows on an isolated pool.

The exchange-traded fund would offer indirect exposure to MSTR stock using a derivatives strategy. A Bloomberg analyst expressed skepticism about the potential product.

The non-profit behind the layer 2 will distribute tokens to past and future contributors, refund some transaction fees and promote DeFi protocols within the ecosystem.

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The likely impending approval of spot bitcoin ETFs has already sparked a major rally in the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but will the bull run continue once the funds are up and running? On this episode of Unchained, the founder and CEO of Global Macro Investor, Raoul Pal, describes why a spot bitcoin ETF is such a significant development, likening it to a free trade agreement with the traditional financial world. He also discusses what effect a spot Ether ETF is likely to have on Ether prices, the relative merits of Ether vs. Solana, the usefulness of BRC-20 tokens and why 2024 is likely to be a very good year for crypto and the economy as a whole.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Pandora, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Watch on YouTube here.

Daily Bits…✍️✍️✍️

  • ❄️ Tether froze 41 crypto wallets linked to sanctions, including several that used the Tornado Cash mixing service, as a precautionary measure.

  • 🛡️ U.S., South Korea, and Japan discussed North Korean crypto thefts and their impact on nuclear and ballistic missile programs in a trilateral meeting.

  • 📊 Compound DAO's vote to reward a developer for fixing a major vulnerability in its protocol fell short of the required quorum by 15,000 votes.

  • 🔍 The SEC was granted an extra week by a federal judge in Utah to explain alleged 'misrepresentations' in a case against crypto startup DEBT Box.

  • 🕵️ Uranium Finance hacker might have used "Magic: The Gathering" trading cards to launder funds obtained from a 2021 exploit, according to ZachXBT.

  • 🎟️ VanEck's proposed spot bitcoin ETF, in a new SEC filing, revealed its ticker symbol to be 'HODL,' a popular phrase in the crypto community.

  • 🌐 El Salvador introduced the 'Freedom Visa,' offering citizenship for a $1 million investment in Bitcoin or USDT, limited to 1,000 applicants per year.

  • 🗞️ Decrypt and Rug Radio, two Web3-focused news organizations, plan to merge operations next year, maintaining brand independence and their distinct content styles.

Today in Crypto Adoption...

  • 🐧 Pudgy Penguins announced the launch of "Pudgy World," a Webkinz-like virtual world for NFT holders and toy owners, set for early access before April 2024.

The $$$ Corner…

  • 💰 GFO-X, a UK-regulated crypto derivatives venue, announced a $30 million Series B funding round led by M&G Investments, aiming for an upcoming launch.

  • 💼 Crypto VC firm C1, led by former Coinbase executives, is exploring acquisitions in Australia, offering to buy private holdings at significant discounts using its $500 million fund.

What Do You Meme?

Recommended Reads

📈 Your Market Update 📉

  • BTC is down 3.2%, trading at $43,722

  • ETH is down 3.9%, trading at $2,371

  • BTC dominance: 50.27%

  • Crypto market cap: $1.65T

*All data as of today, 06:45 am ET

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